A Brief History of Karabakh

2016-04-03 15:20:00

1. The Karabakh region is one of the most ancient cradles of civilisation.

2. Ancient trace of human in the Azikh cave goes back to approximately 350, 000 - 400,000 years ago.

3. The first political power in this region was Albania (consisted dominantly from the Turkic speaking tribes) that ruled the Southern Caucasus region for nearly 1000 years until the 7th Century AD when the Arabs conquered the region. Albanians were the first Christians in the South Caucasus who built Nestorian churches and were the allies of the Byzantium Empire against the Sassanids and Arabs and their allies Armenian feudal groups.

4. In the medieval period, the Karabagh region, including the Irevan belonged to various Azerbaijani states.

5. The area became part of the Russian Empire in 1828. Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and Iran became the strong allies of the Russian Empire against the Ottomans and aided them in Russia’s plan of Eastern expansion. When the Ottomans and Gajars lost the war against the Russians, according to the agreement between the empires, more than 150,000 Armenians started to migrate from Iran and Ottoman lands to the Irevan Khanate and Karabakh. In 1828-1920, 560,000 Armenians were resettled in Azerbaijan, especially in the area north of the river Araz. Later on, some of the Armenian historians falsified the statistics and used this fact against the Ottoman Empire for so-called Armenian genocide. The aim was to increase the number of Armenians in the region. Most of these new migrants were resettled in the landsof the Irevan Khanate. In accordance with a decree of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I of 21 March 1828, the Irevan khanate along with the Nakhchivan were abolished and replaced by a new administrative unit known as the "Armenian Oblast," and later on, the Erivan Guberniya [Province].

6. In 1918, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, Karabakh was formally incorporated into the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic until the rule. However, the Armenian and Russian forces started undeclared war against Azerbaijan and annihilated some part of the region and declared Nagorno-Karabakh an autonomous Republic. Also, they started the genocide of the Azerbaijani population in Baku, Guba, Shamakhy, Goychay, Javad, Salyan, Garabagh, Zangazur, Nakhchivan, Lankaran, Ganja and other districts. They also killed 3,000 Jews. See http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/azerbaijan-jews-want-memorial-for-murdered-mountain-jews

7. On February 20, 1988 the Soviet of the Peoples Deputies of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous region put forth a petition to the Soviets of the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR to transfer Karabakh from Azerbaijan to Armenia. The petition was not granted and the Soviets decided that Karabakh should remain within Azerbaijan.

8. During the Soviet Empire, the Armenian political powers in Armenia and Russia started a secret fundraising campaign. The Armenian diaspora in Europe and North America also became an active force behind the secret plan: in 1988 Armenia started ethnic cleansing of indigenous Azerbaijani population in Armenia and in 1989, the Parliament of Armenia decided to annex Nagorno-Karabakh.

9. The official war started in 1991-1992 and the peak of the war was the Khojaly genocide: in one night: on February 26, 1992, the Armenian army and No.366 Soviet infantry regime deliberately and ruthlessly slaughtered 613 people, including: 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly with inhumane, and took 1275 as hostage. The leaders of Armenia, including Seyran Ohanyan, Serj Sarkisyan, Zori Balayan, as well as Robert Kocharyan, are war criminals and must be held responsible before international court.

10.In 1994, both sides declared the truce but as a result of Armenian war against Azerbaijan 20% of Azerbaijani lands were occupied, nearly 20,000 have died, 50,000 were wounded or maimed, and 900 settlements were looted and burnt. Furthermore, 1 million refugees have been driven from Karabakh, which represents 1/8 of the entire Azerbaijan population. Also, since then Armenia violated the truce many times and according to some sources, they resettle Armenian refugees from Syria, Lebanon, etc., in the occupied regions.

11.On April 2, 2016, Armenia violated cease-fire and attacked Azerbaijan and in response, the Azerbaijani Army responded to them.

12.The United Nations Security Councildemanded Armenia to stop invasion and passed these resolutions in regard to Nagorno-Karabakh: